Milton Ernest Hall. Bedfordshire. 1943

Part One
Milton Ernest 1943-45

Part Two
photographs and captions by Bob Seymour.
Captain. VIII Air Force Service Command (Communication Section).

left - right
1. Hall gate
2. Flag at half mast for President Roosevelt's death.
3. The office hut amongst the trees is the communications section where I worked.

My bed and table in the nissen hut. I was in communications so I had the shortwave radios. If the General wanted a shortwave radio he had to come to me. Well, sort of. He beckoned and I ran to do his bidding.

Two local girls worked as waitresses in the dining room, That's me while enduring the horrors of war. Sometimes I felt ashamed to be there with all these amenities.

And this is Alf, the ex-soldier, who took care of our hut. He was a local Milton Ernest man, and his wife did our laundry. We all chipped in to pay him.

This is the Communications Section.
Top row, l-r, Capt Bob Seymour, ?WAC, Sgt Elsie Breen, Capt. Jack Roy.
Bottom row: ? EM, Sgt Bill Stormer, Sgt Carl White. Carl was my assistant. Missing was Maj Pres Shreeve, who was probably off somewhere courting his future wife, Madge.

This dog hung around my hut, and I fed him, and thus he became sort of my dog.

A B-26 bomber at Twinwood, a very dangerous plane that killed more than a few drivers. The British version was called a Marauder. It was also nicknamed... "The Widow-Maker".

Two days after the end of the war in Europe our neighbors at the 306th Bomb Group in Thurleigh asked a few of the pencil-pushers in Milton Ernest to go for a ride up the Rhine and show the flag. I was lucky to be one of them. Here you can see two of the B-17's in formation.

I was in B-17's many times (as well as several other types) but this was the first time I ever got to ride in the tailgunners position. It's lonely back there but you get a great view. That's me riding as Tail Gun Charlie.

And when you look down you can see Cologne, almost totally ruined except for the cathedral.

The officer compliment in front of the Hall.
(RAF Liason Officer, Wing Commander Heard-White in the front row)